What is really happening to you?

The middle of your cycle is when ovulation occurs and it is created by the peak of two sexual hormones: estrogen and testosterone. The few days after this moment are marked by the decrease of estrogen and testosterone and the increase of progesterone which lead to changes in your ovaries and uterus as well as in your mood. Your body is under the influence of these three sexual hormones. Their levels vary during the month and their rise and fall cause changes in the parts of the brain responsible for moods, thinking, emotions and behavior as well as different physical symptoms. Your cycle is controlled by hormones produced by the hypothalamus and pituitary glands in the brain whose function is influenced by the sexual hormones in a continuous circuit.

What stress does to you & your body

When you are stressed your body goes through many particular transformations in order to adapt to the stress and to help you cope with it. The short term changes which form the stress response are helpful but the chronic stress can be extremely damaging. It has been studied and demonstrated scientifically that stress is a major cause of illness so getting yourself out of it is the shortest and the surest way to health and happiness.

The symptoms of your monthly ovulation and post-ovulation are stressful. You are at risk of getting pregnant at your ovulation and you worry about it. Or you would like to get pregnant and you spend your time fearing you didn’t get pregnant and you will have to wait for another month to try again. You want so much for this to happen and you are anxious that it would not. You get stressed because of not feeling well. You feel down and irritable because of the hormonal fluctuations and you don’t like it therefore adding more irritability and bringing yourself down even more. Would not being in the mood for sex upset your partner and damage your relationship? You think about it, you are anxious about it triggering another wave of stress.

All these thoughts and emotions are adding stress to your life which has consequences on your sexual hormones and throws them out of balance. This affects even more your moods, emotions and your body. You keep yourself in a loop of stress and stress response

Addressing stress in any form it manifests in your life is of utmost importance for your overall health. The less you will get stressed by the daily situations the more wellbeing you will experience: emotional, physical and mental.